Word Origin & History

boilerplate newspaper (and now information technology) slang for "unit of writing that can be used over and over without change," 1893, from a literal meaning (1840) "metal rolled in large, flat plates for use in making steam boilers." The connecting notion is probably of sturdiness or reusability. From 1890s to 1950s it was literal: publicity items were cast or stamped in metal ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers as filler. The largest supplier was Western Newspaper Union.

Example Sentences for boilerplate

I felt like a kind of human periwinkle encased in boilerplate and frozen with cold and funk.

And this at, the end of it all, lined with boilerplate that even alcohol will not corrode and that only alcohol will tickle.

I put in the legal notices, whatever news items I had handy or had time to set up, and stuck in boilerplate as a filler.